| HOW WE ALL FOOLED JEGA From Ephraim Akpata to Abel Guobadia and then Maurice Iwu, elections in Nigeria have come under serious criticism from local and international observers. From problems of poor organisations, rigging, thuggery, violence, intimidation to blatant announcement of results where elections never took place among many anomalies, elections since 1999 have been found short of being credible, free and fair. Many expected a turning point for elections in 2007 when the then President Musa Yar'Adua admitted publicly in his inauguration speech that the election which brought him into office was flawed. In fulfilling his noble promise to reform our electoral processes, President Yar'Adua set up the Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee heralding the much talked about electoral reform in Nigeria. Far into the reform, Prof. Maurice Iwu largely considered as the man that gave Nigeria the worst set of elections got kicked out and Prof. Attahiru Jega was appointed INEC chairman.
Jega's appointment was widely celebrated by all parties and every one with a voice in Nigeria. Jega's credential as an incorruptible man was freely flaunted building the hopes and trust of Nigerians in the 'new' INEC. We all shouted eureka and expected credible, free and fair elections in 2011 as though integrity was the only problem with our electoral process. We all made Jega to believe that with his integrity, the elections will be credible, free and fair. This in a way made Jega to underestimate the task of conducting free and fair elections in a country with over 70 million eligible voters, crooked electoral and political systems, corrupt electoral officers and win at all cost politicians. Jega banked on his integrity as INEC boss to promise free, fair and credible elections and so we all believed him having concluded, erroneously, that was all we needed for free, fair and credible elections.
Then the process started with voter's registration exercise in which DDC machines were either not delivered on schedule by 'some vendors' or stolen on arrival. Amidst the rejection of fingers, crashing of machines, no ink, no generator, strike by adhoc staff for non-payment of stipends and others, INEC completed the registration exercise though with changing figures, and with poorly managed display of voters register, we convinced ourselves we were set for free, fair and credible elections.
Electorates arrived polling booths as early as 7am on Saturday, 2nd April in many parts of the country with high expectation to participate in the first set of what is to become the most credible, free and fair elections in the annals of elections in Nigeria only to meet familiar challenge of 'no electoral officers' and just when the failure of the process was becoming imminent, the news filtered that the election has been postponed till Monday 4th April. Though many Nigerians expressed disappointment with the postponement, one thing was clear, Nigerians were ready to cast their votes come Monday. Some states like Edo and Delta had already declared Monday a public holiday to allow for full participation of public officers in the election. However, by noon on Sunday, INEC had changed the music, the National Assembly election has been postponed again till Saturday, 9th April. While this postponement has left many more disappointed, some have found solace in what they called the courage of INEC chairman to admit the failure of INEC. Though I view this differently, I will not venture into my thought on this since it is not the focus of this article.
The focus of this article is our collective error in not seeing organising credible, free and fair elections beyond the credibility or integrity of Jega as a person. What happens to INEC as an institution? What has changed? I agree integrity is important but what about competence? I understand the election proposal submitted by INEC talks about taking delivery of sensitive materials ahead of time and keeping such in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) facilities, what happened that we are now talking about endless postponement of elections for non delivery of materials? Is this not an issue of competence more than integrity? The competence here is not necessarily that of Jega as INEC boss but what has changed in INEC as an institution? Can only Jega conduct election for over 70 million Nigerians? NO! But a much more efficient INEC will.
In my opinion, the present scenario offers another opportunity to look at what we are missing in our bid to reform our electoral process. The first thing is to accept that the focus must shift from just the person of the INEC boss to INEC as an institution. Does INEC have the manpower to effectively conduct credible elections across the federation at the same time? What about competence of INEC personnel? Any special training or orientation to improve skills or they are simply expected to learn through the process? What do we need to reposition in INEC for better management of elections in Nigeria? Secondly, we must accept that integrity alone is not enough criteria for the appointment of INEC boss, high competence in managing people and processes on a very large scale is a sine qua non. Integrity must be matched with high management skills.
In addition, the process itself requires general overhaul. I found it hard to understand the rationale behind importation of PAPERS for national elections. The point that this provides security and prevents leakage is no longer tenable. We must look for a way of building an INEC institution that can print election materials locally and ensure the security of the materials for elections. Importing election papers from South Africa or Netherland (wherever they are imported) is a national embarrassment for us as a nation aspiring to be one of the leading economies by 2020. Beyond importing election materials, we must equally find a way of ensuring election materials and officials get to hard-to-reach areas within time. We must look at the mobility of election materials and officials, a situation where election materials and officials are moved in private vehicles or in some places motorcycles is unacceptable.
We must also find a way of overhauling our political party systems to allow more internal democracy. A situation where you have injunctions and counter injunctions on whose name INEC should accept or reject many weeks after primary elections leaves our electoral system with so many burdens. The win-at-all-cost attitude of our politicians also leaves a big dent on our collective resolution to give ourselves credible elections.
In conclusion, I found laughable several comments coming from different quarters linking the recent failure of INEC as an institution to 'saboteurs' or to 'some people who does not want Jega to succeed'. We must stop focusing on Jega as the problem or the solution and start focusing on INEC as an institution and finding ways of making INEC more efficient and the electoral environment more conducive for the conduct of credible, free and fair elections. If the elections failed again, it will not be for lack of integrity on the part of Jega, it will be because we believed and made Jega to also believe his integrity was all required for a credible, free and fair elections. AKS |
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment